This is an unusual little volume. In its aims to guide, inform, and entertain both the medical professional and the impaired golfer, it risks satisfying neither. However, the editors and the contributors they have chosen, two dozen in all, succeed admirably. They avoid the Scylla of oversimplification and the Charybdis of arcane language.

The scope of the book is laudable, and the depth of coverage in each chapter commendable. "Back Pain: Diagnosis and Treatment," for instance, would stand on its own in any general medical treatise.

We are titillated in the beginning by behind-the-scenes descriptions of the maladies afflicting some of our favorite golf personalities. I shared what follows, a discussion of the basic elements of playing the game, including the psychological aspects, with a partner of mine who is a true devotee and an accomplished golfer. He responded with enthusiasm, even suggesting that he gleaned some real pearls from